Avatar fans reporting depression or even suicidal thoughts

James Cameron's blockbuster movie Avatar may have left more than its characters a little blue. The notion that the planet Pandora is not real has left some viewers with suicidal thoughts.

Avatar fans have been flooding the Internet with reports of depression and even suicidal thoughts when they realize that Pandora, the fictional Utopian planet portrayed in the movie, does not exist. On one Avatar discussion site more than a thousand posts have been added to a thread entitled "Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible", reports The Telegraph. The site Avatar Forums had so many posts on the subject the site administrator Philippe Baghdassarian had to create another thread to allow more people to express the feelings they were having, reports CNN. Baghdassarian told CNN, "I wasn't depressed myself. In fact the movie made me happy. But I can understand why it made people depressed. The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don't have here on Earth. I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed." A post on NaviBlue said,

I watched Avatar and I now have SEVERE adrenal fatigue and a low thyroid... I can't hardly walk because I am extremely exhausted all of the time.This movie made me suicidal... I am plotting my very own death, with no chance of survival, I'm giving away a bunch of stuff, burned all my writings... and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I have set a "date" to commit suicide. Hanging, gassing or drowning in my bath. I want to live in Pandora and it seems impossible. My life seems completely deprived of any future purpose. Moral values are gone from our society!!! I feel so ashamed of being American! I can no longer bear this kind of life.There is a land however where everything is pure: its name is Land of Death.I am still alive or long since dead? My unnatural death will cause a lot of grief but you'll forget about me and go on with your life. And besides, unnatural death seems to me hereditary, since too many of my relatives have chosen this path.I bid you all farewell and for the last time, greeting from an unhappy human.

In an interview with the Telegraph, psychotherapist, Stacy Kaiser said these fans have other more serious problems in their lives. "They’re seeing Avatar, they're lonely people, a lot of them don’t have a lot going on in their lives right now. The movie opened up a portal for them to express their depression.”